Commercials, who needs them?

Not me, that is for sure. I have never liked commercials with the exception of the Super Bowl Commericals. I actually looked forward to them more than the game unless my team or a team I liked was playing. I suppose the fact any company would be willing to spend $2.6 Million for a 30 second spot (price for a 2007 spot), you come to expect that it's going to be entertaining. My favorite of all time Super Bowl commercials was one put out by Nissan during the 1997 Super Bowl. You can view it here: Target Practice It was doublely satisfying as my team: The New England Patriots were playing The Green Bay Packers. However, recently, they just haven't lived up to all the hype. Although, the Dorito's commercial came close but other than that, it was a bust. The half-time show has gotten less and less desirable as well.

Anyhow, is it me or are commercials louder than the program which you want to watch is? I swear, no matter what I am watching when it goes to commerical I feel like the volume has spiked and my speakers on my TV are being tested everytime. So, I turn turn the volume down when the commercial, which I do not care about in the least is on and back up when my program resumes. This goes on a handful of times for each 1/2 program I watch. It really is ridiculous. I will say that TIVO has done a really good job of alleviating this. However, if I am watching something live... I have no choice.

Another extremely annoying thing about commercials is they have no boundaries. I suppose I have to hold the broadcasting companies to blame as well for this next irritation: The endless Cialis and Viagra commercials. I mean come on... if they want to show them that's fine but can we put a time restriction on, say after 8:30pm. If I have to field a question from my nine year old again about, why would you and what is a 4 hour errection, Dad? I won't be too happy.

Since I brought the broadcasting companies in... how about we lay off the language until say 8:30 as well. When my son hears "What a bitch?" as we are surfing channels looking for the next Avitar series, he doesn't have any context to even go with and may find it acceptable to call anyone a bitch until I tell him otherwise. And as hard as I try to monitor all that he does, I can't be everywhere all the time. Also, does ever sitcom have to have some sexual innuendo as part of its shtick? Don't get me wrong, I find some of them funny and I also am all for the first ammendment but again, these are shows that are on prime time.

This leads me into a whole other segment: Movie ratings. Remember in the good ol' days where we had G, PG, R and X. Well, now we have fallen prey to the PG-13 rating where you may have excessive violence and possible nudity and definitely a number of sexual connotations. I shouldn't have to watch every movie before my 9 and 13 year old to make sure it's suitable for their viewing. I would say the bulk number of movies are PG-13 for language, a lot of the times it's just not needed and the movie would not suffer. Violence, you say? Have you seen the violence in cartoons? I think most children know the difference between what's acceptable and not acceptable regarding violence. I never tried to fall off a cliff because Wile E. Coyote did. Why was PG-13 created anyhow? I am guessing to widen the audience. I mean back in the day PG was usually a kids movie and R was an adults movie. I miss the areas of black and white, you know what your getting yourself into days.

Another fall victim to the all mighty dollar rant.